Career Placement Test
by Unformal Sorrelle
Summary: In which Jaden has to take another dreaded test, Syrus despairs, and Bastion is a terror to grade.


Career Placement Test

 _A Oneshot_

* * *

"A test? Aw, c'mon teach, is this really necessary?" Jaden sighed as the stack of tests got to him. He took one and passed the rest to Syrus. Perhaps it would at least make a good pillow?

"It's just a career assignment, Jay." Syrus raised his eyebrows. "Luckily we don't have to worry about choosing the right answers. Well... unless we don't match up with a career in dueling. Ha. Ha. But I'm sure that's like impossible, right?" Syrus's nervous smile betrayed a whole can of worms of anxiety. Jaden could tell his friends mind was already racing off to the worst possible situation. He yawned.

"Well, if there's no wrong answers then I think I'm gonna take a nap."

"Jaden!"

Jaden nestled his head in his arms on top of his desk. The test actually wasn't a bad pillow when it came right down to it. Him not answering it was probably the most accurate assessment on what he was good at anyways.

Jaden wanted a career where he could duel, not do paperwork. If the assessment couldn't get that then it obviously couldn't have been a very good test anyways.

He just hoped Syrus could stop freaking out. It was one thing that he didn't quite understand. If only Syrus could remember how awesome he was! He was smart and actually did his homework. If Jaden wasn't worried then he didn't see why Syrus could even be anxious given how much better he was with their classes.

Syrus sighed when Jaden began quietly snoring.

He looked at the test as he neatly penned his name at the top. At least it was mostly multiple choice and true or falses. Fill in the blank tests where always so stressful. Syrus took a deep breath as he read the first question.

 _You would rather be at a party then stay home._ _True/False_

What.

Syrus widened his eyes as if looking at it harder would help. What kind of party did it mean? Were any of his friends at the party? Was Jaden staying at their dorm? Did it even qualify their dorm as home, or did the question mean his home with his parents? This question didn't have enough information to it!

He supposed that the only thing left to do is try to answer like a true duelist would. Surely, a duelist would rather go to a party? Then they could find opponents to duel and be social. But then, maybe home was a better option? Then they could review their decks? Syrus started chewing the end of his pencil.

Syrus tried to think of what Zane would do. He honestly didn't know. Zane kinda seemed too cool for parties.

Jaden inhaled rather loudly in his sleep and startled him. Syrus glanced at his friend. With a sigh, he circled 'true'. Knowing Jaden, he'd go to the party for the food and bring it back to the dorm.

Looks like there were only 72 more questions to go.

…

Alexis doodled a hippo off to the side of the paper as she read the questions. They were such dumb questions anyways. For example, on a scale from one to five, how much did she enjoy dueling? She was literally going to Duel Academy. If the answer wasn't that it was number one then someone was going to the wrong school.

She paused her drawing at the next question. How much did she want to be famous and on TV? Well, the context was still dueling, right? She wouldn't mind getting some recognition for her talent. That's how you made a living on the pro circuit anyways, right?

So if being on TV was a byproduct of dueling then she thought it'd be ok. She didn't really like being in pictures, something her brother loved to tease her about, but Alexis was pretty sure she could handle fame. It wasn't like this assessment was judging if she wanted to be some kind of pop singer sensation, right?

She felt her face heat up as she remembered her brother's several attempts to recruit her into some kind of performance duel. If her test came back with anything that could in anyways encourage his delusions then she'd never hear the end of it. She was done being pestered at going into music. She didn't like music, she loved dueling!

Yet, the question was only about fame. Nothing was specifying dueling.

With a roll of her eyes, Alexis circled the three in the middle. Whatever. Now she'd let the test grader figure it out. It wasn't going to be her problem.

She added a feathered headband to the hippo as she continued.

…

Bastion thought the assessment was a waste of time. The questions themselves were so transparent. He wasn't sure how, exactly, the results would be calculated, but it was clear to him that the first part was some kind of Meyers-Briggs hybrid test, with the second specializing on a person's preferences, and the third part being a small short answer portion that probably was attempting to find specifics on the student. It was a personality quiz, not science.

He vaguely wondered if he could just save time on the first part and just write that he was a ISTJ and be done with it. Bastion glanced at the professor and thought better of it. He supposed he could put up with this silliness for now.

He breezed through the test, not giving his answers much thought until he reached the short answer portion. To his utter irritation, the test didn't leave a lot of room for his reply. He hoped that the questions only require a brief paragraph because otherwise he was going to have to write small.

The first question read 'How did you choose your deck?' and Bastion took a deep breathe. Ok. He could do this.

He estimated that he had about six inches down and eight point five inches across in which to fit his answer. That was approximately 51 square inches to fit his answer. His wall in his room was 11 feet by 8 feet or 132 inches by 96 inches. That meant he had to scale down 12,672 square inches worth of writing to the 51…

He started using the bottom of the previous page for scratch paper. He also had to account for explanation on top of all his formulas.

Bastion started to sharpen his pencil. He was going to have to write really, really tiny for this.

…

It took a week to get the results back at the end of class and Jaden couldn't stop laughing at his. Syrus didn't quite get what was funny but he managed a forced chuckle. Jaden wasn't sure if he could really explain.

The official career he was advised for was just a plain N/A printed out for all of the categories on the official looking results page. However, someone, probably Crowler, had taken the time to scrawl SLACKER in bold red ink at the top of the page. Jaden felt honored that he'd cared that much.

"It's even Slifer red!" Jaden grinned.

"But Jaden, you still don't know what kind of career you should have." Syrus's eyebrows furrowed. "Doesn't that bother you any?"

"Nah. I know what I want to do." He shrugged. He stood up from his seat and stretched, getting ready to leave. Maybe he could visit Dorothy and find a snack somewhere. "So, what'd you get, Sy?"

"Uhh…" Syrus blushed and passed the sheet of paper. It said 'Professional Duelist'. "I guess I actually answered it right?"

"Well, of course you did, Sy." Jaden beamed and passed it back.

"WHAT?!" A rather loud, irritated, and rude voice shouted from behind them. Syrus jumped. Jaden lazily glanced over. It was Chazz of course. "This doesn't even make sense!"

Chazz looked like his was five seconds away from tossing up his results and burning them. The three ojama brothers around him where currently trying to hide behind his chair.

"It's not that bad, boss!" Yellow tried to console him without leaving his cover.

"It's just a stupid test." Black said. Green nodded fervently but Jaden really doubted Chazz could see him.

Chazz growled and Jaden couldn't help but feel extremely curious.

"Is anything wrong, Chazz?" Jaden asked as mildly as he could. He could tell that his friend was more bewildered than actually hurt. That was something at least.

"Yeah," he huffed. "This test is wrong. I'm not sure what kind of idiot came up with it. I bet it even put a Slifer slacker like you as the King of Games or something." Chazz clenched his fist.

"That was an option?!" Jaden's jaw dropped.

"Well, no. I don't think so." Chazz sounded somewhat relieved. "However, someone made a mistake because there's no way that I'm meant to be some cult leader!"

Syrus snickered, "really? But what about-"

"That doesn't count!" Chazz thundered. The ojamas behind him shrieked.

"Hmm…" Jaden thought about it. Chazz was pretty good at gaining followers. Jaden still didn't understand entirely how, especially when he liked to pretend to be an antisocial friendless loner even when crashing Jaden and Syrus's dorm room when he got lonely or something, but it was just something about Chazz. He had a certain charisma to him. "I don't know about any cults, but you are a leader. I wouldn't worry about it."

"Cult leader," Chazz spat with his upper lip curled in disgust.

"At least your's was graded," Bastion cut in. Jaden hadn't noticed that he had wandered over. The Ra yellow held his results page with an irritated grimace. "I received a bill for a microscope."

Alexis took one puzzled look at "Duel Monster Artist" and decided not to bring it up.

* * *

 **A/N** : This was all the fault of me having the idea of Chazz scoring 'cult leader' on a career assessment thing. I apologize. However, he is very good at gathering followers XD

Anyways, I've started watching GX recently (I've gotten to season 3) and I actually have really been enjoying it. And yes, I've been mostly watching the dub so that's why I'm using dub names. I've started to alternate between the dub and sub since I've heard season three gets a little mangled with plot/motivations being changed in the dub, but yeah it's been fun.

It's so weird seeing the stuff that ARC-V used, because it's like references in reverse I guess? Like when I saw a location I just started freaking out because the last time I saw a place like that someone got carded. It's also nice to actually meet Alexis/Asuka properly as she didn't get a lot of screen time in ARC-V. I'm not sure what to think of Aster/Edo Phoenix now XD


End file.
